Painting found in rubbish sells for $US1 million

A painting found in a pile of rubbish on a New York street sold
at Sotheby's auction house today for over $US1 million ($A1.12
million), nearly 20 years after it was stolen from a warehouse in
Texas.

Tres personajes (Three People) - a 1970 work by Rufino
Tamayo, one of Mexico's best known artists - was bagged for
$US1,049,000 ($A1.18 million) by a north American buyer who fought
off a telephone bidder, the auction house said.

It had been saved from the garbage by Elizabeth Gibson, who
spotted the work while out walking one morning in 2003.

"It was a Saturday morning. I went out for a coffee at 7am. I
saw it on the sidewalk among black plastic garbage bags," she told
AFP ahead of the sale.

"I passed my way and had my coffee, but a voice inside kept
telling me to go back and take the painting. So I stopped reading
my book and I went back and took the painting, which had a very bad
frame but was in perfect condition."

The work, with bold strokes of red, purple and yellow, was
bought by a Texas couple in 1977 who put it in storage while they
moved house. They noticed the painting was missing in 1987 when
picking up their belongings at the warehouse.

Where the painting went for the next 16 years remains a mystery,
but for several months after discovering it, Gibson kept it on the
wall in her apartment.

Tipped off by a friend that the painting could be valuable,
Gibson started investigating only to find on the internet that the
work had been featured on the US version of The Antiques
Roadshow in a segment on missing paintings. Gibson approached
Sotheby's, which helped return the painting to its original owner,
who remains unidentified.

Federal FBI detectives are still investigating the case.

The painting carried a pre-sale estimate of $US750,000
($A841,890) to one million dollars. Gibson has already received a
$US15,000 ($A16,838) reward for helping secure its return and was
to receive an undisclosed sum from the sale.

The sale came amid a week of Latin American art auctions in New
York expected to fetch around $US50 million ($A56.13 million) and
as the city's first contemporary Latin American art fair wrapped up
after selling some 300 works.

The city's Museum of Modern Art is also due this week to unveil
an exhibition of its most recent Latin American acquisitions.

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